Wild turkey? Do they just lay down and die

Ren the devils trailboss

Ren the devils trailboss

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Feb 27, 2001
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So its a beautiful day in Mid Michigan, so I am walking around my pond in the back fourty and I come across a fresh carcass of a magnificant Tom Turkey. Just laying there, feathers intact and nicely folded, no signs of a scuffle, no wounds of any kind just dead. I feed the turkeys in the winter and it concerns me to see such a magnificant bird laying there dead for no apparent reason. Any of you turkey hunters have a clue?

deadturkey002.jpg


feathers are a bit rustled cause I plucked two tail feathers and moved the corpse a bit to look for wounds, coyote bites etc...

Crime scene...

deadturkey001.jpg
 
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Find a local university with a Veterinarian program.

or contact your local wildlife service

They will be able to do a necropsy & give you a better answer, possibly even for free



What do you feed them?
&
how do you store it / put it out ?
&
is it clean and dry?
http://www.worldpoultry.net/diseases/aflatoxicosis-d2.html


Commercial poultry can die from fright-shock, heat, cold..... but i expect wild ones to be less fragile.
Some slime algae & bacteria can bloom & put out toxins- especially if the pond is stagnant and not aerated
 
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Not trying to be smart, but can't everything alive just perish? I've found other birds dead like that, I remember finding a downy woodpecker once and another time I was driving and a dove fell dead from the sky and landed along side the road. We don't find birds very often, that do expire like that, because they'd be eaten by scavengers fairly quickly in most cases.
 
Are you sure someone didn't make a bad body shot on it? Could have taken it awhile to die that way and may not be any visible blood or damage if it took a few days.
 
I don't see a beard... looks like a hen to me.

Me thinks Ren had too much Mexican food the night before... and well, you can figure out the rest.
 
considering its still hunting season for turkey, someone could have made a body shot, after all lead takes a while to set in and kill. It looks like a tom to me, its more colorful than a hen, just cant see its beard.
 
A local turkey hunter went hunting last week and didn't come back. He was found dead at age 49. Wonder if the turkeys walked by him and wondered, "Do these humans just lay down and die?":D
 
That poor turkey probably got a glimpse of one of Ren's poo pics. The shock was just too much for the bird. :D
 
The link above is especially relevant if feeding corn.

The moisture content of corn has to be especially low for turkeys.
 
CSI Special Wild Turkey unit is flying to Ren's compound as we speak. It may have had a giblet failure, or been a quart low on gravy and siezed up.
 
cj65 said:
CSI Special Wild Turkey unit is flying to Ren's compound as we speak. It may have had a giblet failure, or been a quart low on gravy and siezed up.
Click to expand...

Oh noes. Horatio Caine inbound. :D
 
It's the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate that they added to the air processors.
 
Could be a wound from fighting with other toms. I've killed them and found scars from spurs. Sometimes some pretty bad wounds.
 
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